I realized myself after another fit of uncontrollable sobbing (what, did you think I was immune? happens at least twice a night) that the reason I am heartbroken by this is that I have never, ever had a creation taken from me. In even the worst deals, eventually the book has gone out of print, the rights revert, and I can take it back again. I can make it live again in e-book format. I can write sequels. Even when I kill characters, they can come back. That won't happen when CoH goes dark, and it's been emotionally devastating.
This I think characterizes a bit the worst part of the Publisher/Developer or Publisher/Author relationship is the fact that IP can be bought and sold away from the creator.. at all.
The crux of our current problem is summed up entirely there, that we the fans, and Paragon Studios have our collective works taken from us, not because of lack of money brought in by the fans, not because of lack of interest in the IP by customers, not because of lack of dedicated hands to do the work to write for the IP or lack of dedicated hands to do the work of building the virtual house the IP resides in, but because the Publisher doesn't want it to happen.
I think it's one of the major reasons holding back storytelling in a medium such as video games or television shows and helps to keep video games from being a true art form, is this. I'm going to dub it the Firefly effect until a better name is chosen.
These words really hit hard to me, as somebody who is an amateur co-author of sorts of my own personal use game settings. I've had it suggested from friends before that I should try to publish my works, but I never will, because I'd prefer poverty from the possibility that Amazon.com or EA or Wizards of the Coast or somebody could take my work and just sort of bury it or completely redefine it without my consent. That and I don't frankly think that what I've written is really all that great or all that original.
It might sound selfish or weird, but it's sort of great, to me, to hear that you've never had a book, as a known and published author, that was completely taken out of your hands forever. I know that's probably in no way on topic and probably doesn't really help you feel any better about the current topic, so I'll leave what I've said at that.
